


Day Trips and Swords

by FireandRosemary



Series: Life With The Old Guard [3]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Castles, Day Trips With Immortal Husbands, Historical Reenactment, Joe finds it very sexy, M/M, Mentions of Historical Figures, Swords, Teasing Nicky, joe is a little shit, wearing a sword makes you stand differently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28528512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireandRosemary/pseuds/FireandRosemary
Summary: The boys take Nile to visit a castle, a group of historical reenactors are there at the same time. Nile notices something about people wearing swords.Slightly inspired by 'Nicky, and his sword' by arctowardsthesun
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Life With The Old Guard [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088633
Comments: 8
Kudos: 227





	Day Trips and Swords

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Nicky, and his sword](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26040898) by [arctowardsthesun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arctowardsthesun/pseuds/arctowardsthesun). 



Nile wanders over the grass, carefully balancing the three ice creams. She weaves through the crowd until she reaches Joe and Nicky where they’re watching a display.

It still surprises Nile that Joe and Nicky agreed to visit the castle with her, especially when they saw the event that was being held there. It seems these historical re-enactment events are a regular thing during the summer and this was the only time they had to visit this particular castle.

Nile is hoping that Nicky and Joe will keep their grumbling about whatever historical inaccuracies they see quiet. She’s seen their reactions to badly done history in everything from TV documentaries, movies, and on occasion, a wildly misinterpreted archaeological find. Joe in particular can be very vocal about it, where Nicky tends to look slightly pained. Andy refused to come to the castle for precisely this reason.

So far though, their grumblings have been minimal and Nicky has kindly pointed out that if the group has been using historical evidence, there are bound to be gaps, and at least they’ve tried. Nile can’t stop herself laughing out loud when Joe reminisces about a group they saw once where someone was wearing gym shoes with their costume.

So far they have watched two women arguing over who owns the castle which seems to be the story for the day. When Nile looks to Joe and Nicky and asks them how likely it was, she is surprised to see them both smiling.

“What? You’re telling me stuff like this actually happened?” Nile is all for strong women owning castles, but she wonders how realistic it is, she’s heard that women in the 12th Century were meek and little better than property.

“There were plenty of women such as this,” Joe gestures to one of the women as she sweeps along the castle wall, looking for all the world as though she’d lead an army herself. “Not quite as fierce as Andy, but not ones to upset.”

“You remember Queen Eleanor?” Nicky is watching the other woman as she stalks over the grass, flanked by men he can well believe she has no need of.

Joe makes an appreciative humming noise and grins, nodding.

“What did she do?” Nile can only imagine they’re talking about Eleanor of Aquitaine, she knows the name, but she hasn’t had much chance to study her.

“A great many things people would rather she hadn’t,” Nicky smirks as the display descends into a battle. “The Pope wrote to King Henry once, telling him to control the Queen.”

“How’d that go?”

Joe chuckles, his eyes crinkling in amusement. “The King, he wrote back to him telling him it wasn’t possible.”

Nile watches the display, feeling a new desire to learn more about Queen Eleanor, she sounds like fun.

They wander round the castle, watching displays of crafts, singing and dancing. Finally they come to a show of clothing, Nile taking the chance to visit the ice cream van again. When she joins them again, the man narrating the display is talking about the clothes worn by wealthy people. He beckons to a boy wearing something that, to Nile, looks a bit like a heavily decorated long dress, but is, according to the narrator, a _bliaut_.

“I remember you in those, Nicolo,” Joe murmurs. There’s a note in his voice that Nile recognises and it normally leads to them disappearing off to their room. She rolls her eyes and hopes they’ll restrain themselves until they get back to the house. Thankfully, Nicky merely gives one of his brief smiles and bumps his head gently against Joe’s.

“So as you can see, all the men are standing in the _here is my sword, did you see my sword stance…_ ”

The narrator keeps talking and Nile watches all the men with swords on their belts shift, grinning as they move to stand normally. Moments later though, their hands are back on the hilts of the swords and their hips are slightly cocked to one side.

Nile snorts into her ice cream, carefully avoiding the looks she gets from Joe and Nicky.

As they leave, Joe slings an arm around her shoulders.

“What was the joke?”

“Oh, nothing,” Nile had hoped she’d gotten away with it.

“Tell us,” Nicky is on her other side, looking through his pockets for his sunglasses.

 _Oh fuck it_. “It’s just…well, what he said about the way they stand with their swords…you kinda do that.”

Nicky raises an eyebrow, but Joe bursts out laughing.

“You know what, Nicky, she has a point,” he leans down and stage whispers to Nile, “I don’t think he knows he’s doing it, but he always moves differently when he wears his sword.”

“I do not.” Nicky is not quite pouting, but there is a small wrinkle of irritation between his eyes that often appears when Joe teases him. Nile knows he’s not really annoyed.

“You do, my heart.” Joe laughs as Nicky sighs and shakes his head, slipping his sunglasses on and heading off to find the car.

“He totally does,” Nile leans against a fence, she can’t help but grin.

“Oh he does, he doesn’t know it but he saunters so beautifully when he’s wearing it. It’s wonderful to see.”

Joe is gazing after Nicky, and Nile is certain she knows exactly which _bit_ of Nicky he’s watching. She rolls her eyes, recognising the glint in Joe’s eye. They may have teased Nicky, but it looks like Joe is intending to make it up to him by telling him just how handsome he finds him and a number of other things that Nile has no interest in being around for.


End file.
